What are the basic characteristics of American corporate culture?

America is the pioneer of modern management. The experience of corporate culture management is summed up by its enterprises through continuous practice and applied to practical work, which has achieved great economic benefits. American historian David. Meister asserts in the book Poverty and Richness of the Country: "If economic development has given us any enlightenment, it is that culture plays a decisive role." The management mode of American corporate culture has become the object of learning and imitation by all countries.

First, respect personal values.

The United States is an immigrant country, and most of their early residents immigrated from European countries. These immigrants came to a strange environment and had to start from scratch. Without the help of relatives and friends, we can only rely on personal struggle, and under the tempering of life, Americans have formed a strong individualistic color. In addition, the United States itself has a history of less than 300 years. They entered the capitalist society directly from the slave society and never experienced the feudal society, so their personality was not bound by feudal thoughts. Moreover, because the capitalist system advocated individualism, the American personality developed in the capitalist society.

American individualism makes American enterprises respect the personality development of employees, advocate individual freedom and respect personal value. From 65438 to 0997, the United States revised the original labor law of working 40 hours a week and formulated a flexible working system, which created a relaxed working environment for employees. Enterprises fully trust employees' working ability and believe that employees can handle their own work well. According to the survey of 33 enterprises in the United States, employees have a stronger sense of responsibility and higher work efficiency after adopting the "flexible working system".

1960 HP has established the business theory that "I believe anyone can pursue perfection and creativity in their work, and they will succeed as long as they are given a suitable environment". "Respecting every employee" is one of the three basic beliefs of Wal-Mart, and the company helps employees develop their potential through various channels. IBM, the blue giant in the computer field, regards "respecting individuals" as its core values. Everyone in the enterprise is equal. There is no place and equipment specially prepared for leaders in the company, and even every office and desk has no title identification. The American Small Business Administration studied 65 inventions that had a great influence on the United States in the 20th century, and found that they were basically done by individuals. Jack. After Welch took over as president of General Electric Company of the United States, he made a full decision. In the decision-making seminar, the company invites those employees who have not participated in the decision-making meeting to attend the meeting and listen to their opinions, because employees know their work better than the boss, so that the decisions made can be targeted and avoid mistakes. BHP Billiton Oil Refining Company stipulates that managers should not give orders to employees at will, but should take employees' opinions seriously and respect every employee.

American companies also respect personal values in the incentive mechanism. American companies will spend a lot of time, manpower and material resources to train their employees in knowledge and post ability, improve their business ability and build a platform for employees to demonstrate their ability. IBM generally promotes employees from its own company, gives employees promotion opportunities, and gives employees incentives from their posts. In addition, American companies often reward individuals rather than groups. They believe that employees have the ability to complete their work. They also require employees to be clear about their responsibilities and be responsible for their work. The company rewards employees individually for their outstanding achievements. American enterprises distribute their own shares to employees, so that employees can become the owners of the company, thus giving full play to their sense of ownership, improving their sense of responsibility and enthusiasm, and making employees closely related to the fate of the enterprise. In the 1980s, the typical salary of American enterprise managers was 25,000 shares per year for senior managers, 7,500 shares per year for middle managers and 2,000 shares per year for lower managers. By 2000, 80% of Microsoft employees had stock options.

Starbucks Company was founded in 197 1. After 30 years' struggle, it has become a global coffee retailer. Since 199 1, Starbucks has allowed employees to buy company shares at a discount, and given employees who meet the company's requirements options every year. The researchers of Pax Polo Company in America show the new products to the general manager. The general manager was very happy after seeing it and felt that he should be rewarded on the spot. But at that time, the general manager didn't have a prize, so he had to reward his employees with a banana. Later, the company used "Golden Banana" to reward the company's outstanding scientific research innovators.

American companies' respect for personal values is also manifested in personal heroism. American entrepreneurs are worshipped by Americans as "new American heroes". People follow the example of such business heroes and give them honor and high annual salary. Iacocca, general manager of Christie's Automobile Company, earns $6.5438+0.2 million a year, while President Clinton earns only $200,000 a year.

Second, support adventure and encourage innovation.

American culture is an immigrant culture. Immigrants often encounter new things and solve new problems when they venture from familiar environments to strange places. They need to break away from convention and adapt to the new environment. They should keep trying and innovating, learn from setbacks, sum up from failures, and be encouraged from successes, thus forming the American spirit of adventure and innovation. There are many venture capitalists in America, which is a good example. The Danish philosopher Goerkegaard famously said, "A wild duck may be tamed, but once tamed, it loses its wildness and can no longer fly freely." . American companies like to use this kind of person with "wild duck spirit". They dare to take risks and innovate constantly.

Innovation is the core of American entrepreneurship. There is a popular saying in American business circles: "innovate or perish", which shows that American enterprises attach importance to innovation. In the past 50 years, the United States is undoubtedly the world leader in scientific and technological innovation. 197 The world's high-tech products exporter is the United States, reaching $258 billion, more than the second place Japan10 billion.

Microsoft is Bill. Founded by Gates on 1975, it has a history of 30 years by 2005. In just 30 years, Microsoft has grown from an unknown small company to a global software company, Bill. Gates became the richest man in the world, and Microsoft's WINDOWS operating system was the king of operating systems, which promoted the development of the whole computer industry. /Examination/Collection/Popularization Computers have played an important role in software. Why has Microsoft made such great achievements? The main reason is that Microsoft employees are constantly innovating and constantly updating the quality and functions of their products, making their products in a leading position in the world. Minnesota mining manufacturing companies usually invest about 7% of their annual sales in product research and development. Enterprises provide innovative platforms for employees and provide time and material guarantee for innovators from the mechanism and management.

Innovation will inevitably lead to mistakes and failures. According to the statistics of venture capital in the past 40 years, its success probability is only 20%, which requires enterprises to allow innovators to fail. McGovern, president of International Data Group, said: "In America, it encourages you to try something. Even if you fail, you will get honor for trying." General Motors once had an investment plan of $20 million, which failed due to unpredictable market reasons, but the people who carried out the plan were rewarded. It is puzzling that the position of its manager has risen instead of falling. GM CEO Welch explained the reason, that is, as long as your reasons and methods are correct, even if the result fails, it is worth rewarding.

Constant innovation has enabled Americans to seize the commanding heights of many technologies. America has always attached great importance to the development of science and technology. Every year, they invest a lot of manpower and material resources to develop new technologies and apply them to the production of enterprises, thus transforming them into productive forces, and relying on their technological advantages to formulate industrial technical standards and obtain high profits. Since the 1950s, the United States has invested heavily in computers, ten times as much as the United States invested in atomic bombs. With its massive investment and continuous innovation, the United States has been at the forefront of the world in the computer field, creating a number of giant companies in the computer field, such as IBM, Dell and Microsoft. Microsoft attaches great importance to scientific research investment. In 2000 alone, Microsoft invested as much as $5 billion in scientific research.